With the death of Antonin Scalia, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and numerous other Republicans – namely all Republican presidential candidates – have responded by saying their devotion to the Constitution forces them to violate the Constitution by refusing to consider any Supreme Court nominee Obama will proffer.
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With the looming nomination creating ripples in the presidential campaign, Obama sought to broaden his argument by calling the dispute emblematic of years of escalating partisan hostilities over judicial nominations. “I understand the pressure that Republican senators are undoubtedly under”, he said Tuesday.
Instead, the president will pay his respects on Friday, when Scalia’s body lies in repose in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building. Those numbers were closely mirrored among Republicans, with over 80 percent in both polls preferring that the matter be settled after the election.
Get real-time updates as this story unfolds. I’m amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there.
“I don’t think we should filibuster Supreme Court nominees or any judge nominees”, Hatch told CNN, a comment that the White House’s principal deputy press secretary, Eric Schultz, tweeted out.
The White House has been looking for cracks in the Republicans opposition as it deliberates on a nominee.
Meanwhile, the left-wing advocacy group People for the American Way launched a robocall with actor Martin Sheen asking voters to contact Johnson to give “a fair hearing” to the person nominated for the vacancy by Obama.
Obama stopped short of tipping his hand in terms of who he would nominate.
He was one of the most conservatives justices on the high court and was its longest-serving member.
Asked if that meant he was leaning toward a moderate, Obama said, bluntly, “No”.
And Obama discounted the idea of a temporary recess appointment to serve through the end of the congressional session.
Obama’s dilemma arises, in part, because of the unusual timing.
Four out of the past seven funerals for a Supreme Court justice have either had the president or vice president in attendance. “We don’t need an institutionally dysfunctional Supreme Court”.
By outright rejecting President Obama’s decision to nominate Scalia’s successor in the waning days of his tenure, the Republican Senate leadership threw into stark relief that all parties view the court as an engine created to produce their desired outcomes.
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The court would be unable to issue rulings on any issue in which the justices split 4-4.
